One of the standard practices of Communist Parties around the world is to employ art, including music, as a channel to spread political ideologies. This study aims to scrutinize…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the standard practices of Communist Parties around the world is to employ art, including music, as a channel to spread political ideologies. This study aims to scrutinize the reception of Beethoven's music, particularly from a political viewpoint, by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the People's Republic of China (PRC) during the early years of its rule, i.e. from 1949–1959. The ambiguity of Beethoven's own political outlook may have provided an opportunity for the CCP to choose the composer and his music in support of its aims.
Design/methodology/approach
To understand why and how the CCP could exploit Beethoven and his music to support its political ideologies, a series of Chinese writings on Beethoven between 1949 and 1959 have been studied. Those literatures not only helped the composer gain reputation and popularity in the PRC, but also provided a platform for the CCP to manipulate such candidate and his music. Finally, the reception of the performances of the Ninth Symphony in 1959 in the PRC is singled out for close examination.
Findings
During the first ten years of the establishment of the PRC, the quantity and quality of the articles on Beethoven expanded considerably. These writings continued to reflect the reception of Beethoven and his music with the addition of political nuances that could be interpreted in the CCP's favour.
Originality/value
This paper seeks to examine the PRC's artistic policies, with a particular emphasis on the reception of Beethoven and western classical music.
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Mayang Kusumawardhani, Ståle Gundersen and Markeset Tore
The purpose of this paper is to study the current research approaches in asset management (AM), to evaluate some of the prevalent research methods in AM studies and to summarize…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the current research approaches in asset management (AM), to evaluate some of the prevalent research methods in AM studies and to summarize the result into a building-block research that may provide design guidelines in AM studies.
Design/methodology/approach
AM publications were selected for this study using by online search engines and the publications were classified based on the appropriate research approaches. The results will be discussed and a suitable building-block research for AM studies will be constructed based on the identified research approaches.
Findings
The paper identifies, analyses and validates the research approaches found in a sample of online AM publications. The research-approaches and their associated methods will be discussed to develop understanding of the context of these approaches in AM research.
Research limitations/implications
The paper limits the study in publications within the AM field in the petroleum industry. However, the research methods that are presented covers the most common research methods found in publications. Thus, although the sample of publications may not represent the entire population, the same approach and result can be used in similar topics and conditions.
Originality/value
Researchers or practitioners can benefit from the building blocks of research to develop a research design for AM studies. Moreover, the paper also provides information on common research methods and data gathering techniques that can be used for similar studies.
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Elliott Shore and Daniel Tsang
The most challenging aspect of overseeing an alternative press collection is to provide adequate reference service. The same forces that cause libraries to ignore alternative…
Abstract
The most challenging aspect of overseeing an alternative press collection is to provide adequate reference service. The same forces that cause libraries to ignore alternative publications also conspire against their using them fully and effectively once they have been acquired. This holds true for all forms of alternative literature and media, though periodicals probably suffer the most severe neglect. Many periodicals go unindexed from year to year because such companies as H. W. Wilson and its Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature stick basically to a traditional core of “safe” or “acceptable” periodicals. (It took Readers' Guide ten years to include Rolling Stone, which had long since shed its “alternative” image.)
Miron Mushkat and Roda Mushkat
The principal aim of this paper is to bring into analytical focus the institutional context of the escalation in cross‐border pollution in the Hong Kong/Pearl River Delta region.
Abstract
Purpose
The principal aim of this paper is to bring into analytical focus the institutional context of the escalation in cross‐border pollution in the Hong Kong/Pearl River Delta region.
Design/methodology/approach
The interplay between economic and ecological forces is highlighted against the backdrop of coordination failures in a loosely structured organizational setting.
Findings
It is apparent that powerful bottom‐up forces of economic integration are overwhelming the embryonic machinery hesitantly erected to minimize their adverse effects.
Practical implications
The heavily decentralized model relied upon to manage complex relationships within the Pearl River Delta region needs to be reassessed, with lessons drawn from other parts of the world, notably Europe, which is also confronting friction between the centre and periphery.
Originality/value
The underlying socio‐physical dynamics, fragile organizational façade and crucial policy choices are outlined in a systematic fashion, with intricate linkages carefully pinpointed.
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Oisín Conaty, Leah Gaughan, Colum Downey, Noreen Carolan, Megan Joanne Brophy, Ruth Kavanagh, Deborah A.A. McNamara, Edmond Smyth, Karen Burns and Fidelma Fitzpatrick
The purpose of this paper is to improve surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP) prescribing in orthopaedic surgery using the model for improvement framework.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP) prescribing in orthopaedic surgery using the model for improvement framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Orthopaedic patients receiving joint replacements, hip fracture repairs or open-reduction internal-fixation procedures were included. Antimicrobial(s); dose, time of administration and duration of SAP were evaluated for appropriateness based on the local SAP guidelines. After baseline data collection, a driver diagram was constructed with interventions devised for plan-do-study-act cycles. Data were fed back weekly using a point prevalence design (PPD). Interventions included SAP guideline changes, reminders and tools to support key messages.
Findings
SAP in 168 orthopaedic surgeries from 15 June 2016 to 31 January 2017 was studied. Prescribing appropriateness improved from 20 to 78 per cent. Junior doctor changeover necessitated additional education and reminders.
Practical implications
Due to constant staff changeover; continuous data collection, communication, education and reminders are essential to ensure continuous compliance with clinical guidance. Patients with hip fractures are difficult to weigh, requiring weight estimation for weight-based antimicrobial dosing. Unintended consequences of interventions included the necessity to change pre-operative workflow to accommodate reconstitution time of additional antimicrobials and inadvertent continuation of new antimicrobials post-operatively.
Originality/value
Rather than perform the traditional retrospective focused audit, we established a prospective, continuous, interventional quality improvement (QI) project focusing on internal processes within the control of the project team with rapid cyclical changes and interventions. The weekly PPD was pragmatic and enabled the QI project to be sustained with no additional resources.
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Paulo Renato de Sousa, José Márcio de Castro, Claudia Fabiana Gohr and Marcelo Werneck Barbosa
This study aims to assess suppliers’ learning from knowledge transfers with a global truck manufacturer, considering both source and supplier capacity, and the cultural proximity…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to assess suppliers’ learning from knowledge transfers with a global truck manufacturer, considering both source and supplier capacity, and the cultural proximity between the parties.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study was conducted between two factories, one in Brazil and one in Germany. This study adopted a mixed-method sequential explanatory approach, which involves a quantitative phase followed by a qualitative one to provide a better understanding of the studied phenomenon. Quantitative data were collected from the automaker’s suppliers in both countries and analyzed using factor and inferential analyses. Qualitative data were obtained from the automaker’s purchasing executives, and from the company’s suppliers in both countries. Content analysis was used to analyze data.
Findings
Results suggest that both the source’s disseminative capacity and suppliers’ absorptive capacity had a positive effect on suppliers’ learning during knowledge transfers. The study also found out that cultural proximity among parties positively moderates the relationship between suppliers’ absorptive capacity and their learning. However, cultural proximity does not moderate the relationship between a source’s disseminative capacity and supplier learning.
Practical implications
This study’s findings are important to foster knowledge transfers by developing absorptive and disseminative capabilities in the automakers industry, in which the implementation of interorganizational learning is quite challenging due to the large number of strategic providers.
Originality/value
This study contributes to theoretical and conceptual consolidation of knowledge transfer, which includes cultural proximity among parties and the source’s and supplier’s disseminative and absorptive capacities, respectively. This study constructs and validates a model of knowledge transfer using a large automaker with a worldwide presence.
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The diversity of ideas and information is central to the meaning of libraries—we enshrine it, and too frequently that is the word—in our Library Bill of Rights and other…
Abstract
The diversity of ideas and information is central to the meaning of libraries—we enshrine it, and too frequently that is the word—in our Library Bill of Rights and other documents. This diversity of ideas is more than a passive concept, not just one of defending materials already in our collections, though that is a basic and important role for librarians and one that we are reminded of by Drake, Fairhope, and Kannawha counties. But to support this intellectual freedom we all need to actively promote the widest possible range of opinions, of concepts, of expression. And to do this we need more than the output of Gulf & Western, the Columbia Broadcasting System, Mattel, or Times Mirror. If these names seem unfamiliar in library work to some of you, perhaps you know them through their subsidiaries, Golden Books, Pantheon, and Simon & Schuster.
Janice Lo, Monica Lam and Sijing Wei
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information technology (IT) firms are different from non-IT firms in terms of corporate social responsibility and financial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information technology (IT) firms are different from non-IT firms in terms of corporate social responsibility and financial variables for attracting and retaining employees.
Design/methodology/approach
Through logit regression models, the authors used corporate social responsibility and financial variables to examine the differences between 512 Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For and a random sample of 512 Non-Best Companies peer firms.
Findings
The analysis results show that IT firms are stronger in terms of research and development spending, return on assets, Tobin’s q and leverage conditions, as well as employee relations and environmental performance in corporate social responsibility. Moreover, for IT firms, innovativeness (characterized by high research and development expenditures) is by far the strongest predictor of whether a company is selected to be on the Best Companies to Work For list.
Research limitations/implications
This research demonstrated a hybrid, multifaceted research design using different analysis tools to explore new factors of a research topic. The results confirm the associations among variables, which may not represent causal relationships.
Practical implications
The results shed light on the relationship between corporate social responsibility/finance and IT employee turnover, which provides another dimension for management’s consideration beyond the classic psychometric/fringe benefit analysis for examining employee turnover.
Social implications
IT firms’ superior ability to attract and retain employees using their innovativeness may impact the general public’s career planning and training decisions.
Originality/value
This research project integrated data from four different sources and investigated the IT employee turnover issue from the organizational level rather than the individual employee level.
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With the recent outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and on-going concerns about influenza and the use of pathogenic organisms as weapons, the management of…
Abstract
With the recent outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and on-going concerns about influenza and the use of pathogenic organisms as weapons, the management of outbreaks of contagious diseases has recently taken on a new urgency (Barbera et al., 2001). However, the public health law concerning disease outbreaks is still based on the perspectives, and often the words, of the early twentieth century, when most public officials saw little option but to take a very authoritarian approach to the protection of the public's health. Over the past 40 years, the jurisprudence of involuntary non-criminal incarceration, for example for the treatment of tuberculosis or as a result of mental disease, has changed dramatically, as basic concepts of due process have been incorporated into the process of civil commitment (Gostin, Burris, & Lazzarini, 1999). There is, therefore, a pressing need to rethink the approaches traditionally taken to the control of infectious disease outbreaks to address this gap between the old assumptions of plenary power to act in the public's interests and the rights of individuals threatened with state actions (Davis & Kumar, 2003). It is a canard sometimes used to justify authoritarian actions that the public responds to emergencies by losing control and panicking; indeed it is the consensus of social scientists that people in emergency situations tend to be more cooperative and more generous toward others than they may normally be (Smith, 2001; Clarke, 2002). If anything, it is my reading of such experiences as the bomb attacks on London during World War II (Harrisson, 1989) that it is the poorly prepared and under-supported public officials who are most likely to act in unproductive and socially divisive ways during public emergencies.